Ticket-punch



1410 Model) F. C. CALDWELL.

TICKET PUNCH. No. 585,857. Patentd June 29,1897.

,xx z.` RY; xx z.

FRANK O. OALDVELL, OAK PARK, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-THIRD I TO EDVARD L. LOMAX, OF OMAHA, NEBRASKA.

TICKET-PUNCH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 585,357, dated J une 29, 189'?.

Application filed April 17l 1897. Serial No. 632,5 50. (No model.) l

To CLZZ whom, t may conce/111,.-

Be it known that I, FRANK C. CALDWELL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Oak Park, in the county of Cook, in the State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and usefullmprovement in Ticket-Punches, of which the following is a description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming1 part of this specification.

My invention relates more particularly to ticket-punches which are employed for the punching of what are usually termed com- 1n utation-tickets, said tickets ordi narily consisting of a main body portion, having the proper printing matter upon it, and a margin divided into a series of numbered spaces, each representing a unit of value and adapted to be successively removed by means of the ticket-punch. Such tickets are very largely used as railroad-tickets, each of the numbered spaces in the margin of the ticket being good for one ride between two certain stations designated on the body of the ticket, and one of such spaces being removed by the conductor for each ride between such stations.

My invention has for its obj ect the provision of a novel punch, adapted to cooperate with a novel form of such ticket devised by me, whereby the numbered spaces upon the margin of the ticket may be successively removed with facility and completeness and mistakes and difficulties incident to careless application of the punches to the tickets be avoided, all as hereinafter more fully explained by reference t-o the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a side elevation of a common form of ticket-punch embodying my invention; Fig. 2, a corresponding view, partly in section; Fig. 3, a sectional detail on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4c, a sectional detail on the line 4 et of Fig. 2; Fig. 5, a correspondin g view of the same parts of the old-style punch heretofore in use with the old-style tickets; Fig. G, a plan or face view of one of such old-style tickets; Fig. '7, a similar view of one of my new tickets; Fig. S, a detail of the old-style ticket shown in Fig. 6, with part of its numbered spaces removed and illustrating the application of the old-style punch of Fig. 5 to such ticket; and Fig. 9, a detail of my new ticket of Fig. 7, with part of its numbered spaces removed and illustrating the application of my new punch to such ticket.

The same letters of reference are .used` to represent corresponding parts in all the views.

Ticketpunches of this general character consist, essentially, of a pair of punching-dies of suitable size and shape to punch or bite off one of the numbered spaces of the ticket at each operation and a stop` to limit the lateral movement of the punch, as it is applied to the ticket, to properly center the dies over the space to be removed. The dies are usually formed upon or carried by two jaws of the punch, which are hinged together and normally pressed apart by a suitable spring, and adapted when pressed together to cause the male die to pass through the female die and bite off the portion of the ticket which has been inserted between them.

In Figs. l and 2 of the drawings, A represents theI upper jaw of the punch, which is provided in its under side with a slot in which fits and plays the lower jaw B of the punch, the two jaws being hinged together at O and being respectively provided with handles D and E, adapted to be grasped by the hand. The upper jaw A is provided with a vertical opening ci; which is intersected by a horizontal opening or slot b, the portion of the vertical opening d immediately above the horizontal slot h constituting the female die of the punch, while the portion of said opening below the slot. h receives and guides the upper end of the male die F, the latter being vertically slotted in its lower end and straddling the lower jaw B of the punch, to which latter the die is connected near its lower end by a slot and pin at G. A spring G', secured at its upper rear end to the handle D of the upper jaw A, bears at its lower forward end upon the upper edge of the lower jaw B and' presses the latter downward to its limit of movement permitted by its hinged connection with the jaw A. rlhe pressure of this spring normally holds the parts in the position shown in Figs. l and 2, in which position of the parts the margin of the ticket is free to be inserted in the slot h between the dies of the punch, said slot having a flaring entrance at its forward side to facilitate the IOO insertion of the edge of the ticket. Vhen the ticket is so inserted in the slot h and the handles D E of the punch are then pressed toward each other, the male die F will be forced upward through the female die and punch out or bite off the portion of the ticket interposed between the dies. rlhe extreme upper end of the vertical opening d is made flaring to facilitate the escape of the numbered spaces of the ticket as they are removed by the dies.

So much of the punch as described above is old in the exact form illustrated in the drawings. It will be understood that if this were all of the punch great care would be required in applying the punch to the ticket in order that its dies might be brought into exactly proper position over the numbered space to be removed and that any careless application of the punch to the ticket might cause the dies to overlap two adjacent numbered spaces and partially remove both of them without completely removing either, and, furthermore, that there would be nothing to require the removal of the numbered spaces in consecutive order, but that they could be removed at random anywhere along the margin of the ticket. To overcome these difficulties, punches of this character have heretofore been provided with a stop which closed or partially closed one side of the slot b, in which the edge of the ticket is inserted to be punched, such stop being usually located at the right-hand side of said slot. The provision of this stop left only the forward and left-hand sides of the slot open and served a twofold purpose. It permitted the insertion of only a corner of the margin of the ticket between the dies of the punch, thus preventing the application of the punch at random points along the margin of the ticket, and necessitated the removal of the numbered spaces in successive order from right to left, (assuming the stop to be located at the righthand side of the slot in the punch, as above described,) and, second, the stop by abutting against the right-hand edge of the portion of the ticket inserted between the dies served to limit the movement of the punch toward the left or of the ticket toward the right and prevented the punch being so carelessly applied to the ticket as to overlap the numbered space next succeeding the one to be removed and thereby causing more than the proper space to be removed by the operation of the punch. The stop heretofore employed in punches of this character for these purposes is shown at H in Fig. 5, which, as heretofore stated in the description of the drawings, is a detail of an old-style punch not embodying my present invention. As also stated in the description of the drawings, Fig. 6 represents one of the old-style tickets such as are used with this old-style punch, and by reference to this ticket it will be seen that by beginning at one of the right-hand corners of the ticket the numbered spaces may be successively reremoved at each operation, as intended.

moved bysuccessive applications of the punch and that this may be accurately and properly done provided the punch is carefully applied to the ticket in such a way that at each operation its dies will remove exactly one numbered space and no more and no less.

The stop of the punch is intended to prevent the removal of more than one numbered space at each operation, but it does not prevent removal of less than one numbered space. lf at each operation the punch is carefully applied to the ticket and pressed toward the left or the ticket toward the right until the stop H of the punch abuts firmly against the right-hand edge of the numbered space to be removed, then exactly one space will be If, however, in applying the punch to the ticket care is not exercised to press the punch to the left or the ticket to the right until the stop of the punch contacts withv the righthand edge of the space to be removed, the dies of the punch will not be centered over such space, and when the punch is operated they will bite off a greater or less portion of said space at the right, leaving upon the ticket more or less of it at the left, as indicated in Fig. 8. At the next succeeding application of the punch its stop H will contact with the right-hand edge of this unremoved portion of the space left by the preceding operation of the punch, as shown in Fig. 8, and it will not be possible to move the punch far enough to the left or the ticket to the right to center the dies over the next space to be removed, with the result that when the punch is operated there will be left upon the ticket j ust so much of the left-hand portion of this next space as there was left of the left-hand portion ol' the preceding space at the last operation. It results from this that whenever any numbered space upon the ticket is incompletely removed by a careless application of the punch it is not thereafter possible to correct the error or completely remove any one of the succeeding numbered spaces at any operation of the punch, and a few careless applications of the punch succeeding each other from time to time in the course of use of the ticket will result in gradually increasing the portion of the numbered space left unremoved by the operation of the punch until before the spaces have all been removed and the ticket taken u p the operation of the punch will serve to remove only a small portion of the right-hand side of the numbered space which ought to be removed, thereby leaving upon the ticket substantially the whole of such space. Now railroad commutation-tickets of this character are chiefly used upon trains running between large cities and their suburbs, where the trains stop at very frequent intervals and where the conductors must collect fares and tickets in great haste, it being frequently necessary for the conductor to punch the tickets of a large number of passengers boarding a train at one station be- IIO fore the train reaches the next station a few minutes later. The result of these conditions is that the conductors have to punch the tickets of the passengers very hurriedly and have not time to deliberately and carefully apply the punches to the tickets. In the use of twenty-five-ride tickets of this character it is estimated by the railroad companies that an average loss of one ride per ticket is sustained by the company.

It is the object of my invention to provide a ticket and a punch which will entirely prevent this loss, and this I accomplish by means of a ticket and punch of such character that the punch always coperates at every application of the punch to the ticket with a predetermined fixed stop-surface upon the ticket and not with an undetermined and varying stop-surface formed by the right-hand edge of the space to be removed or the unremoved portion of the preceding space, as heretofore. To this end I provide the old -style ticket (shown in Fig. 6) with a plurality of openings located in or adjacent the upper lefthand corners of the respective numbered spaces, as seen in Fig. 7, and I provide the punch with a stop of such size and shape and arrangement that it can enter these openings and abut against the left-hand walls thereof, the left-hand Walls of these openings thus forming predetermined fixed stop-surfaces upon the ticket, with which the stop of the punch may coperateto arrest the punch at exactly the proper position to completely remove the succeeding numbered space Whether the preceding space has been completely removed or not. To this end I provide the punch with a stop I, Fig. 4, which instead of completely closing the right-hand side of the slot Z9 in the punch, as does the stop H of the old-style punch, Fig. 5, consists simply of a smallpin or projection separated from the body of the jaw A of the punch in rear of it by an open space or recess J. Now if the punch having this new stop is carefully applied to my new ticket each time a numbered space is to be removed the operation and the result will not be substantially different from the operation and result in the careful use of the old-style punch with the old-style ticket, as exactly one complete numbered space will be removed at each operation of the punch, but if at any operation the conductor carelessly applies the punch, so as to not completely remove the numbered space which ought to be removed, but leaves a portion of it upon the ticket, as in Fig. 9, the result and operation at the next application of the punch are quite different from that in the use of the old ticket and punch. Under such conditions, at the nextsucceeding application of the punch its stop Iwill enter the opening at the upper left-hand corner of the space which should have been removed at the preceding operation, as seen in Fig. 9, and abut against the left-hand Wall of such opening, (which is the right-hand edge of the next succeeding numbered space,) While the unremoved portion of the preceding space projects into or passes through the opening J between the stop of the punch and the body of the jaw thereof. This permits the dies of the punch to stand squarely over the numbered space to be removed, and to properly remove it at the operation of the punch, also removing at the same time the unremoved portion of the preceding space which had been left at the last operation.

The provision of the openings in the ticket and of the stop upon the punch adapted to enter said openings, and having a recess or open space behind it to receive the unremoved portion of the preceding space, thus permits the correction at any operation of any mistake or carelessness occurring at the preceding operation,with the result that twenty-five applications of the punch to a twenty-fiveride ticket will insure the removal of all the twenty-jive numbered spaces.

The particular size and shape of the openings in the numbered spaces of the ticket, and consequently the particular size and shape of the stop I of the punch, are not essential, it being sufcient that the openings in the ticket be of a size and shape which will cause them to be cut into by the left-hand edges of the dies of the punch at even a careless application of the punch, so as to open them to receive the stopof the punch at the next succeeding operation and thereby permit a proper application of the punch at such operation t0 completely remove the succeeding numbered space.

The dies of punches of this character usually have one of their edges made of some irregular shape, differing in different punches assigned to different conductors, by which an examination of the ticket discloses by what punch and conductor the preceding numbered space or spaces were removed, the removal of the spaces leaving an irregular line along the edge of the ticket, as indicated in the drawings.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim- A ticket-punch of the character described, having the male and female dies and the open space between them for the insertion of the ticket, and provided at one side of such open space With the stop I having a recess or open space .I in rear of it, whereby the punch is adapted to coperate with a ticket such as described, in the manner and for the purpose set forth.

FRANK C. CALDWELL.

Witnesses:

EDWARD RECTOR, LEoNoRA WIsEMAN.

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